
Glass Fbb^ 
Book G 3o 



V 



ADMISSION OF KANSAS. 



SPEECH 



J' 



<,^ 



OP 



HON. G. Af GROW, OF PENNSYLVANIA, 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, JUNE 30, 1856. 

On dosing the debate on the Bill reported from the Committee on Ter- 
ritories for the admission of Kansas into the Union as a State. 



Mr. GROW said : The first test vote on the bill 
under consideration will be on the motion to 
commit it to the Committee of the Whole on the 
state of the Union ; after having disposed of the 
pending instructions — one proposed by the gen- 
tleman from Georgia, [Mr. Stephens,] in the na- 
ture of a substitute ; the other, an amendment 
thereto, restoring the Missouri Compromise, of- 
fered by the gentleman from Indiana, [Mr. 
Dunn.] Before speaking on the merits of this 
bill, I propose to say a word as to the effect of 
this motion, should it prevail. Every person who 
has served in this Hall is aware, that at this 
stage of the session, should this bill be referred 
to the Committee of the Whole on the state of 
the Union, it could never, in all probability, be 
reached. If it is proposed to sand it there for 
the purpose of amendment, that object would 
not be secured ; for, in order to reach it, it would 
be necessary to lay aside every bill on the Calen- 
dar preceding it, one by one, by a majority of the 
Committee. And the same majority which could 
lay aside the bills so as to reach this, could, 
when reached under the ruling in the Nebraska 
case, strike out the enacting clause, and report 
the bill to the House without a single amend- 
ment, or any opportunity for one. If, then, the 
only object in referring is to have it amended, 
gentlemen will see that that object would not be 
accomplished by the reference. 

As to the instructions proposed by the gentle- 
man from Georgia, [Mr. Stephens,] I have but a 
word to say. His amendment, which is similar 
to a number of amendments that have been in- 
troduced lately in the other wing of the Capitol, 
professedly for the relief of Kansas, proposes the 
appointment by this Administration of a certain 
number of men, who are to go into Kansas, take 
a census of voters, and provide for the election, 
at some future day, of delegates to form a State 
Constitution. I have no faith in any measure of 
redress for the people of Kansas, which is to be 
placed in the hands of this Administration to ex- 
ecute. A bill organizing the Territories of Ne- 
braska and Kansas was passed by Congress, and 
it was the President's boundea duty to see it car- 



ried out in good faith to the citizens who relied 
on its protection. He signed that bill, was there- 
fore a part of it, and it was his duty to see that 
its letter and spirit were in no way violated, but 
that the rights secured to citizens under it were 
fully protected. He entirely failed to do so. 
Having thus failed 

Mr. McMULLlN, (interrupting.) Will the gen- 
tleman yield me the floor for two minutes ? 

Mr. GROW. For what purpose ? 

Mr. McMULLIN. To explain the course of the 
President. 

Mr. GROW. Not now. If I have time to finish 
the remarks which I propose to make, before the 
expiration of my hour, I will yield the floor with 
great pleasure to the gentleman from Virginia. 
If he proposes to ask me a question pertinent to 
the subject I am speaking on, I will hear and an- 
swer it ; otherwise, I am unwilling to yield at this 
time. 

The President having failed to prcrtect the citi- 
zens of Kansas in the rights secured to them by 
the organic act, I ask whether we should now 
place in his hands any measure of proposed relief 
or protection for that people ? When a public 
officer betrays his trust in one case, will you in- 
trust the same charge to his keeping again ? Do 
you expect any relief to the people of Kansas 
from this Administration, or from the minions 
whom it has sent to that Territory ? To expect 
it would be as great folly as to hope to protect 
your lamb from a second attack of the wolf, hj 
putting two bells on its neck instead of one. I 
am opposed to any measure of relief, the execu- 
tion of which is to be intrusted to men who have 
trampled on every right most sacred to American 
freemen, and who have given to the flames the 
houses of peaceable citizens, and driven them 
forth homeless into the wilderness. 

It is proposed by this substitute that five men 
be appointed by the Administration which has 
permitted all these wrongs, to take a census of 
the population of Kansas ; and that they may 
employ such per?ons as they please to assist in 
taking it. No person is to vote at the election 
for delegates to form a Gonstitutioa, unlasa hig 



name is on that census list. They might em- 
ploy, under this power, Stringfellow, Jones, and 
Donaldson, to go out and take the census of the 
people — making such a list as would suit their 
purposes, and secure the success of the border 
ruffians in their crusade in behalf of Slavery. 

But, even if the list was a fair one, what secu- 
rity have yon that a fresh invasion would not be 
effected, or that armed men would not go to the 
polls, seize upon the ballot-boxes by force, and 
drive away the legal voters of the Territory by 
violence, as has been done in every election here- 
tofore held in the Territory ? The penalty fixed 
in this substitute for illegal voting would not 
prevent it, for it is simply a fine not io exceed a 
certain sum of money. Should a Slavery propa- 
gandist be brought before Judge Lecompte, 
charged with illegal voting, who believes that, 
when the penalty is not to exceed five hundred 
dollars, it will exceed six cents ? Who believes 
that the penalty would ever be fairly enforced 
under such an administration of law as exists in 
Kansas ? A Judge who orders the destruction of 
public buildings, printing presses, and private 
dwellings of respectable citizens, as nuisances, 
on the mere finding of a grand jury, is not to be 
trusted with the rights of American freemen. 

But, sir, there is some encouragement for the 
friends of Freedom in Kansas in the propositions 
which have been submitted within a few days 
in this Hall and in the Senate. It is, that the 
ground taken in the early part of the session with 
respect to Kansas is abandoned by the men who 
resisted the appointment of any committee to in- 
vestigate the transactions in that Territory, al- 
leging that no frauds or violence had been com- 
mitted; and even if there had, this House had no 
power to control or redress them. 

Propositions for settling the troubles in Kansas, 
and professedly to prevent the repetition of the 
wrongs and injustice perpetrated upon her people, 
are now made by those who strenuously opposed 
the appointment of that committee, and justified 
or apologized for the wrongs which their report 
exposes ; and the ground taken in the opening of 
the session, that Kansas must have a population 
of ninety- three thousand four hundred and twenty 
before she could be authorized to form a State 
Constitution, is abandoned on all sides. That 
was really the only plausible objection that could 
be made to her immediate admission; and that 
yielded, what objection can there be, save that 
her Constitution prohibits Slavery? 

The power of Congress to admit new States is 
conferred in section three, article four, of the Con- 
Btitution, in these words : 

" New States may be admilted by the Congress into this 
Uiiiiii." 

The time, mode, and manner, of admission, is 
therefore left entirely to the discretion of Con- 
gress. 

The proposition is now to admit her as a State 
into the Union, after taking a census, without re- 
gard to the number of inhabitants. Why delay 
her admission, then, for the taking of a census, 
when it is proposed to admit her, whatever her 
population may be ? I appeal to every gentle- 
man who proposes to admit the State of Kansas, 



afler the taking of a census, without regard to 
the number of her inhabitants, why not admit 
her at once, and put an end to all these troubles? 

Some gentlemen say, we ought to take no ac- 
tion upon the subject until the Investigating 
Committee, which was sent into the Territory, 
have made their report. Now, that report, so far 
as the question of the admission of Kansas into 
the Union is concerned, it seems to me is wholly- 
immaterial, except as furnishing an additional 
reason for her admission, in order to relieve the 
people from great wrongs. But if it is consider- 
ed necessary, that Commission has returned, »nd 
any member who is not satisfied as to the condi- 
tion of things in Kansas, can satisfy himself by 
an appeal to the members of the Commission. 

The question now before us is, whether the 
people of Kansas are to be relieved from their 
oppressions and wrongs by its immediate admis- 
sion as a State into this Union ? So far as that 
question is concerned, it makes no difference 
whether the Kansas legislation was valid or in- 
valid. Even if valid, and elected without fraud 
or violence, the pretended laws they enacted, and 
which were transmitted to this House by the 
President of the United States, are a disgrace to 
any civilized people. The only question is, 
whether you will relieve these people from that 
despotism and wrong, by admitting them now as 
a State into the Union ? There is no other way 
in which you can effectually relieve them, and 
prevent constant invasion of their rights by non- 
residents. 

But it is said, that if the laws enacted by this 
Legislature are wrong, they can be repealed — 
that the ballot-box is the proper place to change 
unjust laws. As a general proposition, that is 
true. But this legislation was forced upon the 
people of Kansas, through fraud and violence, by 
an invasion of non-residents. Of the six thousand 
three hundred and thirty-one votes polled at that 
election, but fourteen hundred and ten were legal 
votes, as ascertained by the investigations of the 
committee sent by this House to Kansas. After 
enacting laws which even Southern Senators, 
rising above the prejudices of their section, have 
declared on the floor of the Senate to be cruel, op~ 
pressivc, and palpabh/ tinjust to one section of the 
Union, and an insult to honorable men, they pro- 
vided against their repeal by disfranchising at the 
polls — by unauthorized test oaths — all who are 
opposed to them. They provided for their exe- 
cution in the spirit in which they ■« ere enacted, 
by taking from the people any voice in the elec- 
tion of their officers. 

There is not an officer in the Territory of Kan- 
sas to-day, civil, military, or judicial, save the 
thirteen members of the Council of the spurious 
Legislature, (who hold over another year,) in the 
selection of which the people have had finy voice. 
The executive and judicial officers were sent by 
the Federal Government, and the Legislature ap- 
pointed, or provided for the appointment, by their 
own appointees, of the election boards, sheriffs, 
constables, justices of the peace, and all other of- 
ficers in tl^e Territory. And then, to guard against 
the changp of any of their " cruel and unjust 
laws," they require, aa a qualification to vote 



and to hold office in said Territory, in addition to 
other obnoxious qualificatioas, an oath to support 
the Fugitive Slave Liw ; and they postponed ilie 
next meeting of the Legislature till the Ist of Jan- 
uary, 1857. But, as the Council hold over another 
year, no change can be made in these laws by the 
people themselves, even if they were not distran- 
cht-ed at the polls, till after the 1st of January, 
13n8 ; so that, from the time of passing the Ter- 
ritoriU law by Congress, which provided for an- 
nual sessions of the Legislature, it will be almost 
four years before a change can be effected in the 
Legislature, so as to repeal these laws. 

Tbe gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Stephens] 
the other day referred to legislation in his own 
State which he believed to be unconstitutional 
and oppressive; but the courts decided thatitwas 
constitutional, and he submitted to the decision, 
as was the duty of a good citizen. But if a pro- 
vision had been appended to that law, prohibiting 
any man from voting for its repeal until he had 
sworn to support it, would he have felt himself 
bound to abide by it? 

Sir, tbe people of Kansas are in a different po- 
sition from that of any people in any State in 
this Union, in respect to any laws of which com- 
plaint was ever made. For the first time in the 
history of the Government, is an oath required of 
a voter to support particular laws, as a qualifica- 
tion to vote at any election. Well might the 
Senator from Delaware [Mr. Clayton] declare it 
an '' injustice unexampled." A Legislature, that 
denies the right of private judgment, that has 
stripped the people of all voice in the selection of 
their own rulers, that strikes down freedom of 
speech and of the press, under the penalties of 
not less than two years' imprisonment at hard 
labor, and that tramples upon every right dear 
to a freeman, has been imposed upon the people 
of Kansas by fraud and violence — their houses 
have been burned, and their property destroyed, 
under the sanction of this Administration and its 
appointees. There being no peaceable mode for 
the people of tbe Territory to change these "cruel 
and oppressive " laws for more than two years, 
they resorted to the only peaceable mode of re- 
dress under the circumstances. And that was 
to form a State Government, and ask admission 
into the Union. 

They proceeded, peaceably, as they had aright 
to do, under the Constitution of their country, to 
form a State Government, and ask of Congress 
to admit them into the Union as a State. Their 
memorial is before you, and is to be answered 
by your action on this bill. All the proceedings 
preliminarj^ to the formation of this Constitution 
have been as regular and orderly as the distuthed 
condition of the Territory would allow ; and in- 
stead of being confined to any class or party, it 
was of a general character, and extended an in- 
vitation to all citizens to participate. The first 
public meeting tor that purpose was held at 
Lawrence, September 15, 1855, at which time 
the following resolution was pass«d : 

'■Resolved, That we, th" people of Kaiifa* Territory, in 
ma-s meeting asseinhlcd ir-e<peclive orpiiriy dit-iiiicii jus. 
iiitiaeu-eil by coinmoa iiecessi'y. and ^rc iily de^irou^ ol 
pioiiioiiiig ilie cominoii i;oo(l, d" hereby cull upon ii.d re- 
quest all bona fide citi^eni of Kadsas I'crruory, of wliai- 



ever political views or predilections, to consult together 
i 1 their respective election di.siricts, and, in mass conven- 
uon. or oilierwi'L-. e'eei three deiegites for each Repre- 
-entaiive to vvhicli fni I election disiri:"t is entitled in the 
Hous-. ot" Representatives of ihe Legislative Assembly, by 
.iroclainaiio i of Governor Reeder, oi date )9th of i\[arch, 
1S5j; said delegates toassemule in convention at the town 
of Topeka, on the 19ih day of September. lt?o5, then and 
I here to coii>ider and determine upon all sulijecls ol public 
iuieresi. and particularly upon that having reference to the 
speedy formaiion of a State Con-siitulion. with an intentian 
■'fan immediate anplicaiion to be admr'tied as aSta e into 
ihe Union of tiie United Slates of America" 

In accordance with this recommendation, del- 
egates were elected in the different election 
districts, who met at Topeka, on the 19th of 
September, A. D. 1855, to take into considera- 
tion the expediency of calling a convention to 
form a State Constitution. The address issued 
by this convention was to the legal voters of Kan- 
sas, and closed in these words : 

'•And whereas the debasing character of the Slavery 
which now involves us impels to action, and leaves us, 
as the only legal and peareful alienialive, the immediate 
establishment of a Siaie Government; and whereas the 
organic act fails in poiming ont the course to be adopted 
in an ernergency like ours: Therefore, you are requested 
to mee' at your several preciiicts in said Terri ory lierein- 
after mentioned on the second Tuesdav of October next, 
ii being the ninth day of siid month, and then and there 
cast your ballot- for n'enibers of a convemion, to meet at 
'^opeka o)i ilie fiurih TnescJay in October next, to Ibrm a 
Cousuiuiion. adopt a Bill of Rights for the people ot Kan- 
sas, and take all needful measures for organizing a State 
Government prepnratory to ihe admission of Karuas into 
the Union as a Stale." 

After this address, which fixed the time and 
places of election, provided for the appointment 
of judges, and the qualification of voters, elec- 
tions were held in every district in the Territory, 
and delegates elected to meet at Topeka the 23d 
October, 1855, to form a State Constitution. 
They met at that time and place, formed a Con- 
stitution, and submitted it to a vote of the people 
for ratification on the 15th of December follow- 
ing. The 15th of January, 1856, a Governor, 
Legislature, and State officers, were elected; and 
the Legislature met on the 4th of March, 1856, 
and after receiving the Governor's message, ap- 
pointing committees, and electing United States 
Senators, adjourned to the 4th of July. 

All these proceedings were necessary, before 
their application to Congress for admission ; for 
the power given to Congress by the Constitution 
is to admit States, not Territories. The new State 
must therefore have all the "agents indispen- 
sable to its action as a State," before its applica- 
tion ; and such was the decision of the Attorney 
General, transmitted by General Jackson to the 
Governor of Arkansas, September 21, 1835. Re- 
ferring to the third section of the fourth article 
of the Constitution, he says: 

'•This pr 'vision implies that the new State shall have 
i)een cons'i'uted by the gitilemetit of a Coiustitution or 
frame of Government, and liy the appointment of those 
'fTicial igents whxh ace indispensable to its action as a 
Stale, and egpfcially to its action asa memberofthe Union, 
piiorto its adml^sion into the Union, in accordance witb 
this implication, every State received into the Union 
since the adopiioii of the Fedi ral Constitution has been 
actu»lly orifauized prior 'o such admission." 

Instead of the proceedings of the Free State 
movement in Kansas being against law, it is 
clearly in accordance with law and constitu- 
tional right. The Free State men in this move- 
ment have done nothing but what they had a 



right to do. The people of any Territory hare 
a right, under the Constitution, to call a conven- 
tion at any time, with or without an act of Con- 
gress or of the Territorial Legislature, and to 
form a State Government, and apply to Congress 
for admission into the Union. The right of a 
people " to alter or abolish " their form of Gov- 
ernment is an inherent one, and is classed in the 
Declaration of Independence, as indispensable to 
the inalienable rights of man. 

The mode and manner of accomplishing it in 
organized States properly belongs to the forms 
of law, to be prescribed by the State Govern- 
ment; but in the Territories, Congress is the 
only power that can prescribe the forms ; for a 
Territorial Government emanating from Con- 
gress can be changed, modified, or abrogated, 
only by its consent. That consent, however, can 
be expressed as well after as before the action of 
the people. If Congress, then, has prescribed 
no form, whatever action the people think proper 
to adopt, in order to secure a change of Gov- 
ernment, provided it be conducted in a peace- 
able manner, is lawlul and constitutional — law- 
ful, because it violates no valid law — constitu- 
tional, because article first of the amendments 
to the Constitution secures to the pcojjle every- 
where, under its jurisdiction, the right, paramount 
to all law, peaceably to assemble, and to petition the 
Government for a redress of (jrievances. 

General Jackson, in replying to the Governor 
of Arkansas in 1835, who solicited of him in- 
structions for his guidance in case the people of 
that Territory, without a law of the Legislature, 
proceeded to elect delegates to a convention, and 
to organize and put in operation a State Govern- 
ment, without the authority of Congress, says, 
through his Attorney General, in the opinion 
just cited, that — 

"It is not in ihe power of the General Assembly of 
Arkansas lo pass any law for the puip' se of ele<'ting 
members to a convention to form a Coiislitiilion ai d Slate 
Government, nor to do any ol ler act, directly or iiidi- 
lectly, to create such new Govi-rnment. K.very such law. 
even though it were approved l>y the Governor of tiie 
Territory, would be null and void.'' 

The Governor of Arkansas, in this same com- 
munication to the President, expressed the opin- 
ion that, under the Constitution and laws of the 
United States, no measures can lawfully be taken 
by the citizens of Arkansas, to form a Constitu- 
tion and State Government, until Congress shall 
first have granted them authority so to do ; and 
that he will therefore feel himself bound to con- 
sider AND TREAT ALL SUCH PROCEEDINGS AS UNLAW- 
FUL. That is precisely what the Administration 
and its abettors, under similar circumstances, are 
now doing in reference to Kansas. And it is to be 
regretted that the President did not send to his 
Governor in Kansas the opinion sent by General 
Jackson to his Governor in Arkansas, in days 
when Democracy meant something besides prop- 
agating and nationalizing the institutions of ] 
human bondage. In instructing his Governor \ 
as to the rights of the people, he says : 

■'They undoubtedly pos«ess t'-e ordinary privileges and 
immuniiiesof cijizi*n« of the United Slates. Amoiipr these 
is the right of tlie people • peaceably to unsemble, and lo 
pelitjoii the Government for the redren* of crievancnB.' 
In the ex!«r»ii9 ef this rfj<ht',' fti« inlwWtA'ntB af Arksinrai 



may peaceaWy meet topetherin primary assembly, or in 

conven io s cl osen by such assemblies, frr ihe purpose 
of pe iiior.ins Congress lo al-rojaletbe Terriioiial Gov- 
ernm nt. and to admit ihem into ibf Union as an inde- 
pendent Stall-. The particular form which they may give 
lo their pelitinn cannot lie material, so long as they con- 
fine themselves to the mere right of pttulonins. and con- 
duct all their priiceediiiga in a peaceal.'e mn"ner. AJid 
as the power of Congress over the whole subject is ple- 
nary and "nliniiied. they may ,irci pt any Coustilution, 
however framed, whieh in their judgment meets the sense 
of tie people to be affected by it. If then-fore, the citi- 
zens of Arkansas think proper to acoompjiny their pe- 
tition by a wii'ten Conslilulioii, framed and aereed on by 
tlieir primary assemblies, or by a conveniion of t'elegaies 
chosen by such assemblies. I perceive no It gal objc ction 
to tlieir power to do so; nor to any mt-asures tha' may 
be taken to collect the sense of the people in respectto it." 

Does the Constitution meet the sense of the peo- 
ple to be affected by it? The existence of Slavery 
was the only question upon whL'h the people 
were divided, and the vote for delegates to the 
Convention settled that by a majority of legal 
voters. 

All the proceedings preliminary to the forma- 
tion of a Constitution in Kansas have been con- 
ducted in a peaceable manner. The Legislature 
that convened on the 4th of March passed a res- 
olution that no act of theirs was to hare the force 
of law, and no officer elected under that Consti- 
tution was authorized to act, until confirmed by 
some subsequent action of the Legislature, and 
thus they await the action of Congress. Govern- 
or Robinson, in his message to the Legislature, 
speaking as the agent of the State thus organized, 
shows its peaceable character and subordination to 
the action of Congress, in the following extract : 

'•It is understood that the deputy marshal has private 
insiruclioiis to sirresl the members of il;e 1 .egvlaiure. and 
the S'ate officers, for irea-on. as soon as this wddress is re- 
ceived bv you. In such an event, oi course, no resistance 
will be off- red to the oifieer. Men who are re idv ti de- 
fend their own and their c"untr>'s honor with their lives, 
can never oi'jrct to a le?Hl investigation into their action, 
nor to suffi-r any punishment their conduit may merit. 
We should b*- uiiwor:liy the constituency w'e represent, 
did we >hiink from martyrdum on the scafToM, or at the 
stake, shoul ! duty rt-quire it. Should the blood of "'ollins 
and Dow. of Barber and Brown, be insufficient lo quench 
the thirst of ihe President and his ;iecoinplices in the hol- 
low mockery of ' squatter sovereignty ' they are puicti- 
ciiig u|)on the people of Kansas, t en more victims must 
be I'uriiished. Lei what will come, not a finger should be 
raised against the F' deral authority until there shall be 
no hoiie of relief but in revolution." 

The people of Kansas, relj^ng on their consti- 
tutional rights and the ofiScial decisions of the 
Government, and following the precedent of Ten- 
nessee, Arkansas, Michigan, Florida, and Iowa, 
all of which formed State Constitutions without 
any act of Congress authorizing the same, pre- 
sent themselves, through the memorial of their 
Legislature, and ask admission into the Union. 
Why should not their prayer be granted ? 

Since the objection to the immediate admission 
of Kansas, on account of insufficient population, is 
abandoned, there can be no other, unless a sec- 
tional one, except the allegation of informality in 
her proceeding, in not having a previous act of 
Congress authorizing them. I have shown that 
such an act is not necessary on any principle of 
constitutional right. Five States have been ad- 
mitted without any such act. And, so far as the 
forms of law were concerned, Michigan came into 
the Union against them, having entirely stip- 



planted the Territorial Legislature before the ac- 
tion of Congress. 

Michigan applied for admission with a Consti- 
tution formed by her people without any previous 
act of Congress. Under it she had elected a 
Governor, Legislature, United States Senators, 
and member of Congress. Her application was 
met with the same objection as is now urged 
against Kansas — that her proceedings were not 
only without law, but against law and good 
order ; and that class of objectors were opposed 
to receiving her memorial, ou the same grounds 
urged by a class of Senators against the memo- 
rial of Kansas, for it would be recognising the 
Slate of Michigan when there was no such State ; 
and to recognise her as such would be sanction- 
ing treason. Congress, however, admitted her, 
on condition that her people should assent to a 
change of boundary. The legally-constituted 
authorities called a convention, fi.xed the time 
and place of holding the election for delegates, 
and prescribed the qualifications of voters. This 
convention, so constituted, rejected the terms of 
admission. But the people, by a spontaneous 
movement, without any legislative act whatever, 
called another convention, and accepted the con- 
dition of admission fixed by Congress. Under 
these circumstances, Michigan was admitted into 
the Union. 

Kansas, with far greater reasons than ever 
existed heretofore for a departure from the usual 
forms of proceeding, asks at your hands the 
same boon. In the case of Michigan, the times 
were more fortunate than those of Kansas. 
Andrew Jackson was then President; Benton, 
Niles, W. R. King, and a host of other equally 
illustrious leaders of the Democracy, were then 
in the Senate Chamber, and espoused her cause. 
No threats or efforts were then made to subdue 
liberty. 

Kansas, having violated no law, lays her peti- 
tion for a redress of grievances at your feet. For 
doing this, some of her citizens are exiled from 
their homes, and others pine in chains, charged 
by the Government of their country with trea- 
son — treason in peaceably forming a State Con- 
stitution under the right guarantied by the par- 
amount law of the land, in order to ask of Con- 
gress admission into the Union — treason for 
doing precisely what the people of Arkansas and 
Michigan did almost a quarter of a century ago, 
and which was endorsed by Congress and the 
then President of the Republic. But times have 
changed, and men with them. 

The Democracy in the days of Jackson stood 
upon the principles of the fathers of the Repub- 
lic in reference to the Territories, and justified 
the right of the people peaceably to assemble 
at all times, and petition for a redress of griev- 
ances. 

The gentleman from Georgia, [Mr. Stephens,] 
in his remarks on Saturday, appealed to the higher 
law to sustain Slavery. Without stopping to 
discuss Scripture authority on that point, for it 
belongs to the theologian as one of his contro- 
verted questions, I wish liere only to say, that if 
Slavery and its existence rest on the Old Test- 
ament for their support, then the same authority 



will support white Slavery as well as black, 
and tbe amalgamation of master and slave. In 
the Slavery of the patriarchs there was intermar- 
riage between the master and slave — the sona 
and daughters of the one with the sons and 
daughters of the other. It is not questioned that 
the slaves of that day were white. If that was the 
case, then the gentleman's argument proves too 
much, and there is a rule of the logicians, that 
an argument is as faulty that proves too much, 
as one that proves too little. If the Bible argu- 
ment be good, whites can be seized and carried 
into bondage, and masters and slaves may amal- 
gamate. But I will pass by for the present the de- 
fence of Slavery, as authorized by the practice 
of the patriarchs; for how far their example 
should be followed, or can be, consistently with 
thf new dispensation that declares " that what- 
soever ye would that men should do to you, do 
ye even so to them," will come up properly on a 
bill now pending in reference to another patri- 
archal institution existing in one of the Ter- 
ritories. 

The gentleman seemed to think that the spirit 
of Jefferson would feel indignant that he should 
be quoted as authority by Republicans. Sir, if 
the spirits of the departed hover over the scenes 
of earth, and watch with solicitude its aflairs, 
with what anguish must that spirit contemplate 
the wrongs in Kansas, who exclaimed, when on 
earth — 

'' With what execraOon should the ftalesman beloided, 
who. perndling oiif-hali th-r- liiizriis thus \o trample on 
th» lights of thi' other, transforms those into despots, and 
thrseiuto eiemies, destroys the Hjorsls of the one part, 
and the amor jialrire of the other!" 

If the spirits of the sainted dead hover over 
their country, watching its destiny with anything 
of their earthly solicitude for its welfare, what 
anguish must wring the heart of his noble co- 
patriot, who, in the Senate Chamber, in 1819, 
declared that — 

' Nott'injf can more gladden the heart, than the contem- 
plation o" a portion of territory cons^ecraled to Freedom, 
who-c foil should never be moistened by the te»r of the 
slave, or degraded by the step of the oppressor or the 
oppressed." 

Can the spirits of such men be wounded by the 
appeal of the living to their authority to vindi- 
cate the rights of the freemen of their native 
land, and save from degradation the very terri- 
tory that once so gladdened the patriotic heart 1 

Tyranny and wrong rule with brute force one 
of the Territories of the Union, and violence 
reigns in the Capitol of the Republic. In the one, 
mob law silences with the revolver the voice of 
justice, pleading for the inalienable rights of man; 
in the other, the sacred guarantees of the Con- 
stitution are violated, and reason and free speech 
are supplanted by the bludgeon ; and, in the 
Council Chamber of the nation, men stand up 
to vindicate and justify both! "VYell may the 
patriot tremble for the future of his country, when 
he loeks upon this picture, and then upon that ! 

Can the spirits of the departed, unless they 
partake more of earth than when surrounded by 
their clay tenements, look down on these scenes 
without anguish and bitter sorrow? 

Mr. Speaker why, should the application of 



6 



Kansas for admission be delayed, when it seems 
to be conceded on all sides that it is proper to ad- 
mit her without requiring the ratio of population 
necessary for a Representative in a State? That 
idea seems to have been entirely abandoned. Then 
why delay this application, when every man 
must be satisfied, in his own judgment, that it 
would restore peace to Kansas to give her a Gov- 
ernment of her ort-n formation, with officers and 
courts of her own selection ? Immediate action 
is necessary, in order to put an end to the strife 
in the Territory, which, the President inform? 
us, threatens the peace not only of Kans,\s, but 
of the Union. The representatives of Freedom 
and of Slavery, struggling for supremacy, rally 
to the plains of Kansas with the implements of 
war and violence. Is the bitterness engendered 
in these conflicts to be allayed, and the dangers 
of bloodshed to be averted, by Congress author- 
izing the people of the Territory, at some future 
time, to do what they already have the right to 
do, without any such authority? An act of 
Congress authorizing them to form a State Con- 
stitution confers no right tliat they do not already 
possess, and is no redress of present grievances, 
or relief ajjainst unjust and oppressive laws. 
How can gentlemen who claim to be the special 
advocates of the right of men to govern them- 
selves in the Territories object? 

It is an inherent right of a people, the world 
over, to govern themselves ; and that right can- 
not be interfered with without injustice, unless 
the condition and circumstances under which 
they may be placed necessarily impose restraints. 
Such is the case with the Territories. The popu- 
lation, in the first instance, being too small to 
support a Government, Congress establishes one, 
and pays all its expenses. Consequently, it must 
bave a supervision over its acts, for the same 
reason that a principal must have control over 
the acts of his agent; otherwise, he might be in- 
volved in any amount of expenditure for purposes 
whic\i he entirely disapproves. If the people 
could go mto the Territories, in the first place, in 
sufficient numbers to support a State Govern- 
ment, Congress should have nothing to do with 
them any more than with a State. 

But being for a time too weak and feeble in 
numbers to su[)port a State Government, from 
the necessity of the case Congress must form a 
Government for them, and they must submit, 
during this infancy of their existence, and during 
this inability to support a Government, to such 
conditions as may be imposed by Congress. But 
those conditions should be removed at the earliest 
practicable period. When the people are of suf- 
ficient numbers to support a Government of their 
own, and ask it at your hands, why withhold it' 
\Vhy not free your Treasury from the burden of 
sui)porting their Government, and allow them 
that right which belongs to them— the inherent 
right of the people to govern themselves, to pro- 
tect their own ballot-boxes, their own lives, and 
their own property? The objection made to the 
adisission of Kansas, under present circumstan- 
ces, by most of the opponents of her admission, 
IS, that law and order must be maintained in 
thifl Territory ; and that was a point urged by 



the gentleman from Georgia, [Mr. Stephexs.] 
Sir, law and order have not been violated in that 
Territory, save by the officials of your Govern- 
ment. We have the testimony of Governor Shan- 
non himself, as to the peaceable character of the 
citizens of Lawrence, who, by his own letter to 
the President, of November 28, 185.5, shows that 
the influence of the Executive office of the Terri- 
tory was to be wielded in behalf of Slavery, whose 
interests he regards as synonymous withlaw and 
order. In writing the President, in reference to 
the arming of the Free State men, he says : 

"This miUtaryorsjatiizritioii is looked up^ii as ho=li'e »o 
a'l Southern men, or rather to the laiv and order party of th» 
Territory, ina ly ol' whom have ie:auves and liieuds, and 
ali have. sympiithizeTS, in Missouri:'' 

The first invasion of Lawrence was made be- 
fore any legal process of any kind or description 
was ever issued against any citizen of that place. 
In the letter of Governor Shannon to the Presi- 
dent, December 11, 1855, which gives an account 
ot the invasion of Lawrence, he bears testimony 
to tlie law-abiding character of the people of that . 
place. He says : 

•'It was at oiic- agreed ihat the laws of the Territory 
should have thff re,'ular courss, ami hat tlioise who dis- 
puied Uieir validity should, u" ihev de-ired to do sj, lest 
Uiaiqu-stioji i,i the judicial tribunals of the coinry ; that 
i I the m-ait tiine no resistance should b- made to their 
due executio'. and the citizens of Lawr. nee and vicinity 
were, when properly called on, to aid in the arrest oi any 
one charged A-iih their viotaiioii, and to aid and assist in 
Ihe I reservation of the peace and fjood order of society." 
* * * •' It is [irnpi-r I should s'ly that they claimed that a 
Large majority 6f them had always held and inculcated the 
same view.'' 

The people of Lawrence reiterated this decla- 
ration in the following communication adopted 
in a public meeting of her citizens: 

t 1..AWKENCE, May 14, 1356. 
DeabSie: We haves-en a p:oi;lainaii ni issued by your- 
sell', dated lllh May, and also halve re iable infonijat oi 
this m-iniiijg that lartje bodies of armed men, in pursuance 
of your pruclamitKin. have asjeinlded m the vie. nay of 
Lnwrence. That ih-re may be no inisundi rsian Iniff. we 
beg leave to a-k rei-peclluily, (.hat «e may be r liably in- 
Ibrtned.) what are tlie demand.^ ai;ainsi us? We de-ire 10 
slate, niojl irjthluUy and ear.iesily, timt no opp,>i.iiion 
whaievtr wil, now, or at any lulure time, be oli' t. d lo the 
execution of any l-^jal i)ro'ess by jouiselfor any pe.«ou 
ac iiiJ f if yon. We al-o plfdge ourse.vt s toai>isi >ou.if 
cuili d upon, ill the e.\eCul;on of any legal pro'-e-s. We 
deciare ourselves to be (,rJer-loviny and la« abiding cli- 
zeiis, and only await an opportunity to te»iii) our fidel- 
ty to the laws of the, country, the ConsUluUoii, and the 

UnlO:l 

V\ e are informed, also, that those men colleciiig nbjut 
t.awrence openly declire tha' tneir mit mi )ii is tuUe.-lroy 
the town, and drive offtli • citiz iis. Of course, we do not 
'lelieve that you .irive any counteiiai.ee to such lhrlal^i 
but in view of the excii n,' tslaie of he public ini-id, we 
ask p'-oteciioii ot the cons ituicd auihorit;es oi the Govern- 
ineni. declaring ourselves hi reiidijies* lo ■ o opcraie w i h 
them lor ih- mainti nance of the peace, ordtf, and quiet, 
of the commu ii) in which wj live. 

J. B. Oo.xaldmin. 

Unite! States Marshal for Kansas Territory. 

And at a still later day, the committee of safety 
of Lawrence sent to Marshal Donaldson the fol- 
lowing : 

W'e, the committee of pnlilic safety for the citizens of 
liawrence, make this slan nienl and deula anon lo you as 
AJarsha ol Kaiitas 'J'erritory. 

That we re.irne't ciiizens of the United Stales, and of 
Kansas, who acknowleds'e ihe conslituted authoiities of 
the Government; thai we make no resistance lo tne exe- 
cution of the law<. ;M^ii(>iiul or rir.iiorial ; a id thai we 
a»k proleclion of ilio Cioven inenl, and claim lias law- 
auiding Am -rican citizrns. 

For Uie.priYuie p.oijeny already lakeii by your posse, 



wp ask indemnification ; and what r"tTinins1o us and our 
ciiizeiis. we ihrow upon you for proii clion. trusliug iliat 
u 'fterlhe flag of our Union, and wiihin the foldsof the Con- 
sti utioii. we miiy oolam safety. 

SAiMUF.L C. POMKROY, 

LYMAN ALLEN, 

JOHN A PERRY, 

C. \V. BaBCOCK, 



■\VM. V. ROBERTS, 
S. B. PRESTON, 
A. H. MaLLORY, 
JOEL GRuWN. 



Yet, after all these declarations by men -who 
had violated no law, and who had proposed, in 
a ■written communication to the Governor and 
Marshal, of ITth of May, to deliver their arms, if 
desired, " to Coionel Sumner, so soon as he should 
quarter in the town a body of United States troops 
sufficient for their protection, to be retained by 
him as long as such force shall remain," Law- 
rence was sacked, and its public buildings and 
printing presses destroyed. 

Where is there a man under arrest in Kansas, 
or with any civil process against him, who has 
shot down men there for freedom of speech, or 
who has destroyed printing presses, burned the 
dwellings of peaceable and defenceless citizens, 
and sent their wives and children into the wilder- 
ness, to find protection with the savage, against 
their less-merciful pursuers ? Where is the man 
■who has been arrested by your guardians of law 
and order for any of these outrages and wrongs? 
Under the sanction of officers of the law, citizens 
have been stopped upon the highways, their 
persons searched and papers seized, without any 
legal process ; their property taken and confis- 
cated; and they, unless engaged in the work of 
making Kansas a slave State, compelled to carry 
a pass, signed by some official of the Territory, 
in order to save themselves from robbery or 
murder by these conservators of law. Thus are 
American freemen, on American soil, reduced to 
the condition of a Southern slave, who must 
have his master's written pass in order to leave 
the plantation. 

With the shout of law and order you lay in 
ashes the houses of peaceable citizens, destroy 
their printing presses, and with cannon batter 
down their public buildings. With the shout of 
law and order you disarm the citizen, while the 
Constitution of his country declares that the 
right "to keep and bear arms shall not be in- 
fringed." With the shout of law and order you 
search and take from the houses and persons of 
the citizens, without legal process, their papers 
and efl'ects, when the Constitution of tiie country 
declares that "the right of the people to be se- 
cure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, 
against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall 
not be violated ; " and no search shall in any case 
be made without a warrant issued on oath, de- 
scribing the place to be searched, or the person 
or thing to be seized. With the shout of law 
and order you seize law-abiding citizens, and by 
mob law exile them from their hotnes, for declar- 
ing that Slavery is an evil, and ought to be pro- 
hibited by law, while the Constitution guaranties 
freedom of speech and of the press. With the 
shout of law and order you arrest and put in 
chains order-loving citizens, on a charge of high 
treason, for peaceably assembling and petition- 
ing the Governmeat for a redress of grievances — 



thus trampling upon all law and the most sacred 
guarantees of the Constitution of your country. 

Law and order is the excuse of despotism, the 
world over, for all its enormities. It was to pre- 
serve law and order that Poland was blotted from 
the map of nations, and the dungeon and the rack 
silenced the voice of patriotism in Hungary. To 
preserve law and order, the streets of Naples are 
crowded with chained gangs, and its quarries are 
covered with galley-slaves, guilty of no off"ence 
save that they hate oppression and love liberty. 
For the same reason, some of the noblest sons of 
France are to-day pining in hopeless exile, and 
Siberia is full of hearts too large to be contained 
by their native land. 

The law and order that reigns over the graves 
of crushed humanity is more to be dreaded than all 
else ; it is the order of death. Order reigns in 
desolation — reigns everywhere, when you close 
the mouths of men, either by brute force or under 
the sanction of law. The scaffold sends its vic- 
tim to a quiet rest, and order reigns over his grave. 
The order of Kansas is the order that reigned in 
Warsaw on the 7th of September, 1831, when, 
with its streets red with the best blood of its citi- 
zens, and the shrieks of liberty stifled as her last 
votary fell, Paskiewitch sent to the Czar his memo- 
rable dispatch, " Order reigns in Warsaw." The 
satrap of this Administration in Kansas exhibits 
a like love of law and order with his prototype, 
whose example, with becoming projiriety, he 
might well imitate, if he succeds in crushing out 
in Kansas the spirit of liberty, by sending a like dis- 
patch to his superior, " Order reigns in Kansas." 

Law and order enlist in the service of any mas- 
ter who, for the time being, chances to hold the 
sceptre of power. They are just as efficient for 
oppression and wrong as for freedom and right. 
When enlisted in behalf of despotism, I pay no 
homage at their shrine. But liberty and law are the 
twin divinities who guard the rights of man, and 
watch over his happiness. At their altar, all good 
men will lay their oS'erings. But the law and 
order of despotism is to be execrated the world 
over ; and the day has passed away wfien oi^^- 
rage and wrong are to be vindicated by the cry 
of law and order. 

In view of the wrongs and outrages perpe- 
trated upon the people of Kansas, the patriot may 
well exclaim, in the language of Madame Roland 
on ascending the scaff"old : " Oh, Liberty, what 
crimes have been committed in thy name ! " 

Mr. Speaker, were there no precedent for the 
admission of a State under like circumstances, 
those surrounding this case would, of them- 
selves, be sufficient to establish one. Truth, 
justice, and humanity, need no precedents ; they 
make them. It is old abuses and time-sanc- 
tioned wrongs that entrench themselves behind 
formulas. 

Why should an American legislator hesitate 
in the performance of any act that his judgment 
approves, for want of a precedent ? The exist- 
ence of the Republic, and its whole history, is in 
violation of all precedent. 

There is not one of the universally-recognised 
truths of to-day, but what was the rankest heresy 
when first proclaimed, and the fagot and the 



8 



rack dripped with the blood of its martyrs. The 
world's conservatism trembled when lifiy-six bold 
merchants, farmers, and mechanics, proclaimed 
the inalienable rights of man. As for myself, 
there is but one book of precedents that can in 
any way control my action as a legislator, and 
that is written upon my heart by the finger of 
Him who made it. 

"Let ihe (lead pa^t bury its dead ; 
Act, act, ill the liviiii,' present, 
Henri wilhiii and God o'erUead." 

One word here, in answer to the gentleman 
from Georgia, [Mr. Stephens,] who thought 
these troubles the result of other causes than 
the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. The 
wrongs of Kansas date from the day that the 
Missouri Compromise was repealed. On the 
heads of its repealers rest the blood shed in Kan- 
sas, and the wrongs and the outrages which have 
been heaped upon it. The repeal was for the 
purpose of making Kansas a slave State. It was 
a conspiracy from the start ; and it has been 
carried out with violence and brute force. With- 
out that repeal. Slavery could never have gone 
there. There would have been no effort to force 
it into the Territory. Without it, Kansas would 
have been saved from civil war, and the repose 
and harmony of the Republic would have con- 
tinued undisturbed. On the heads, then, of the 
repealers rests the responsibility for all these 
troubles. Strife, anarcbj', and bloodshed, are 
the first fruits of that repeal, and the second seal 
is not yet opened. 

But the gentleman says that the country is at 
peace, and is prosperous and happy. True, but 
the agitation in the country is not based upon 
dollars and cents. It is founded upon principle — 
a principle underlying the foundation of our 
Government — a principle which enters into the 
spirit and genius of the Republic. And I ask 
the politician, if this agitation is not the result 
of the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, how 
it happens that but nine of those from the North 
who voted for that repeal were returned to this 
House, while some forty who voted against it 
ocJhpy seats here to-day? How happens it that 
every election for Senator in the North, since the 



repeal, with one exception, has resulted in the 
election of an opponent to that repeal ? Does he 
believe that there has been no change in the 
popular sentiment? Does he believe that the 
people remain quiet and satisfied with the exist- 
ing condition of affairs? If so, how does it hap- 
pen that in every State election, save one, held 
in the North since that repeal, the Democratic 
party, which was the instrument by which it was 
accomplished, has been defeated, and its banner 
trails in the dust on the proudest fields of its 
former triumphs ? And why does it rejoice to- 
day in accessions from the ranks of its old ene- 
mies, to save it from hopeless ruin ? It trampled 
on the holiest and best impulses of the human 
heart, and it must now receive its retribution. I 
desire here to quote a reason which I urged 
against the repeal of the Missouri Compromise 
at the time, a part of which, results have already 
made prophetic, and each day is verifying the 
correctness of the balance of the prediction : 

But. sir, as an early anf* constant friend of this Admin- 
istration, 1 desire the defeat of this hill ; for its passage 
will, in my judgment, insure, beyond a doubt, an ami Ad- 
ministration majorily in the next Congress. As an earnest 
and devoted (rieiid to the Democratic party, to which I 
have cheerfull) given my best energies from my earliest 
political action, I desire the defeat of this bill; for its pas- 
sage will blot it out as a national orjiaii zation, and, leaving 
but a wreck iii every Northern Slate, it will live only in 
history. As a lover of peace, harmony, and fraternal 
concord among the citizens of the Confederacy, and as a 
devotee at the shrine of this Union, with all its precious 
hopes to man, I desire the defeat of this bill ; lor its pas- 
sage will tear open wounds not yet healed, lacerate 
spirits already t"r nzied, and "the bond of confidence 
which unties the two sections of the Union will be rent 
asunder, and years of alienation and unkindness may ii - 
tervene before it can be restored, if ever, to its wonted 
tenacity and strength." 

If you would calm the spirits that you have 
frenzied, heal the wounds you have inflicted upon 
the country, and restore peace and harmony to 
the Republic, admit Kansas as a State with her 
free Constitution. And if you would end this 
sectional strife forever, return to the example of 
the Fathers of the Republic, and cease your ef- 
forts to propagate Slavery under the protection 
of the flag of your country, and desist from the 
attempt to nationalize the institutions of human 
bondage. 



WASHINGTON, D. C. 
BUELL & BLANOHARD, PRINTER?}. 

1856. 



■u 




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